tips to improve power point presentations

8/6/2019 Tips to Improve Power Point Presentations

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1Enriching Quality of Life Everyday Everywhere

Making PowerPoint Slides

Avoiding the Pitfalls of Bad Slides




Tips to be Covered

• Outlines

• Slide Structure

• Fonts

• Colour

• Background• Graphs

• Spelling and Grammar

• Conclusions

• Questions




Outline

• Make your 1st or 2nd slide an outline of your

presentation

• Ex: previous slide

• Follow the order of your outline for the rest of the

presentation

• Only place main points on the outline slide

• Ex: Use the titles of each slide as main points




Slide Structure – Good

• Use 1-2 slides per minute of your presentation

• Write in point form, not complete sentences

• Include 4-5 points per slide

• Avoid wordiness: use key words and phrases only




Slide Structure - Bad

• This page contains too many words for a presentation

slide. It is not written in point form, making it difficult

both for your audience to read and for you to present

each point. Although there are exactly the same numberof points on this slide as the previous slide, it looks much

more complicated. In short, your audience will spend too

much time trying to read this paragraph instead of

listening to you.




Slide Structure – Good

• Show one point at a time:

• Will help audience concentrate on what you aresaying

• Will prevent audience from reading ahead

• Will help you keep your presentation focused




Fonts - Good

• Use at least an 18-point font

• Use different size fonts for main points and secondarypoints

• this font is 24-point, the main point font is 28-point,

and the title font is 36-point• Use a standard font like Times New Roman or Arial




Fonts - Bad

• If you use a small font, your audience won’t be able to read what you have written

• CAPITALIZE ONLY WHEN NECESSARY.IT IS DIFFICULT TO READ

• Don’t use a complicated font




Colour - Good

• Use a colour of font that contrasts sharply with thebackground

• Ex: blue font on white background

• Use colour to reinforce the logic of your structure

• Ex: light blue title and dark blue text• Use colour to emphasize a point

• But only use this occasionally




Colour - Bad

• Using a font colour that does not contrastwith the background colour is hard to read

• Using colour for decoration is distracting

and annoying.• Using a different colour for each point is

unnecessary – Using a different colour for secondary points

is also unnecessary• Trying to be creative can also be bad




Background - Good

• Use backgrounds such as this one that are attractive butsimple

• Use backgrounds which are light

• Use the same background consistently throughout yourpresentation



Background – Bad

• Avoid backgrounds that are distracting ordifficult to read from

• Always be consistent with the background

that you use




Graphs - Good

• Use graphs rather than just charts and words

• Data in graphs is easier to comprehend & retain thanis raw data

• Trends are easier to visualize in graph form

• Always title your graphs




Graphs - Bad

January February March April

Blue Balls 20.4 27.4 90 20.4

Red Balls 30.6 38.6 34.6 31.6




Graphs - Good

Items Sold in First Quarter of 2002

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100


Blue Balls

Red Balls




Graphs - Bad

20.4

27.4

90

20.4

30.6

38.6

34.631.6

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

70

80

90

100


Blue BallsRed Balls




Graphs - Bad

• Minor gridlines are unnecessary

• Font is too small

• Colours are illogical

• Title is missing• Shading is distracting




Spelling and Grammar

• Proof your slides for:

• speling mistakes

• the use of of repeated words

• grammatical errors you might have make

• If English is not your first language, please have

someone else check your presentation!




Conclusion

• Use an effective and strong closing

• Your audience is likely to remember your last words

• Use a conclusion slide to:

• Summarize the main points of your presentation• Suggest future avenues of research




Questions??

• End your presentation with a simple question slide to:

• Invite your audience to ask questions

• Provide a visual aid during question period

• Avoid ending a presentation abruptly

tips to improve power point presentations

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